Delay: I'm sorry for such a long wait. I had tons of stuff to do and on my freetime I was stuck with writer's block forever. I still have some writer's block, but I think I can figure things out when I get to them. Without further adieu, enjoy!
-Nick POV-
Nick's eyes fluttered open as his brain began to operate on a level of consciousness that was acceptable to the living. The first thing he noticed was the lack of Edmond's snoring in the cell. After his eyes adjusted to the unnatural brightness of the room he looked around. He found that he was in an actual bed, an occurrence that hadn't happened in over seven years.
A person wearing an all white uniform, who Nick assumed was the nurse placed a pen and a stack of paper in front of him. "I see you're up. I'm sorry to pry, but Ozpin told me that unless you took the test I'm going to give you, the school must turn you over to the police." Said a woman wearing a white nurse's uniform.
"That's fine. I'm good with close to anything at the moment."
"All you have to do is answer these questions on this sheet, than you can head down for breakfast. I'll be right over here if you have any questions." The nurse gestured over to her desk at the front of the room.
Nick gave a nod of his head to show his understanding and took the indicated sheet with a pencil that the nurse provided. The questions seemed quite straightforward and common knowledge, they didn't take long. After finishing the sheet he handed it to the nurse, "Where's the dining hall?"
"Take a right down the hallway, exit the doors and it's the building in front of you. Take care."
Nick removed the sheets of the infirmary bed and found he wasn't wearing any clothes. Quickly placing the covers over his body he looked at the nurse to see if she had seen anything. She gave no sign of seeing anything and continued working on papers by her desk.
Getting up the nurse said, "I'll get you a set of clothes." The nurse disappeared for a moment and returned with the school's uniform for males. Nick grabbed it and quickly changed while the nurse turned back to her work. The clothes felt far more restricting from his previous open rags, but he liked the feel of it. Something about the jacket and tie made him feel more professional, and in charge of his own life.
Nick followed the instructions that the nurse told him to get to the banquet hall. Halfway there he could smell the food, causing his parch mouth to salivate. When he entered the building his nose was met with the heavenly assortment of every type of breakfast food imaginable. His mouth was salivating with anticipation of fully gorging himself at the open buffett. After grabbing enough food for two full plates he stood at the center of the buffett looking for any open seat.
"Over here!" Shouted a blond that Nick recognized. 'What was her name again, Yang, that's it.'
"Hi Yang." Nick shouted back, as he brought his food laden plates over.
"Wow, you have a lot of food! Almost as much as me" Cried out a petite red haired girl who was introduced to him the other day as Ruby.
"I haven't eaten in a long time. I was practically starved for quite some time." Chuckled Nick.
"Too bad Blakey isn't here for us to introduce you to her. Anyway, this is Ice Queen"
"Hey! I'll let you know I'm Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust company." Cried the white haired girl from earlier.
"You're still Ice Queen. Moving on this is Nora, Pyrrha and Jaune." Yang said introducing her fellow tablemates.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm Nick. What were you guys talking about?"
"Jaune's being bullied by Cardin Winchester." Said Pyrrha.
"No I'm not, he's like that with everyone. He's not a bully." Jaune put the last word in air parenthesis.
"Stop it." Said someone in a whiny voice from another table. Nick looked over to see Velvet having her soft coffee ears being pulled from her skull.
"I told you they were real!" Scoffed Cardin with the rest of his team laughing in support.
"Tsk. That boy is revolting the way that he torments faunuses." Came a voice with detest from behind Nick.
"Ohh. Perfect, Nick, this is Blake, Blake meet Nick." Yang's boisterous voice cut through the topic of the bullying.
Nick turned his head to see this Blake. He knew from spending years surrounded by all types of faunuses that he was looking at a cat faunus. Something about her felt… familiar. He didn't actively despise faunuses like some others that he had met in the past few years, but he sure as hell didn't like them anymore.
If nothing else being a fighter in no bar hold matches taught him to always be aware of his surroundings. He heard the sharp intake of breath that he knew from practice was a tell tale sign that someone was in the pain where they would normal scream, but refused to let someone see they got the better of them. He looked over and wasn't too surprised to see that it originated from Velvet. The one thing that Nick hated more than faunuses was bullies, and frankly this 'Cardin' character was a well known one.
Standing up he strolled over to where Cardin and his crew were still harassing velvet. "Now I'm not sure if you knew this about me, but I hate bullies. So move along now before I cause a scene."
Exhaling his foul smelling breath into Nick's face Cardin replied, "What'cha gonna do about it loser."
Stepping in close so that only him and Cardin could here he growled,"Taking your play toy. Now back off before I have to hunt down your family and kill them. Because believe me, it won't be slow. Hell, I might even have you watch as they scream" He leaned back and gingerly grabbed Velvets arm guiding her over to his table with the bubbly characters of team RWBY and JNPR. Cardin's face seemed paler. Cardin realized that when people talk about doing the types of things that this boy just had without even batting an eye with that much hate showing, they weren't people you wanted to cross. Or at least not without having a plan.
The rest of lunch was quiet and uneventful. Velvet seemed quite, but at the same time happy. She seemed to enjoy being around the overly optimistic team of RWBY and JNPR. Nick wasn't paying much attention to them though, he was far more focused on keeping an eye on a little deer faunus who was sneaking out of the cafeteria quite suspiciously.
Nick heard that sounding of the school bells announce that it was time for classes. He had no idea what his class schedule was supposed to be. At first he thought it would be interesting to search the halls, but he lost interest in that after being drawn to the first class that he walked by. It was full of innocent students talking, laughing and collaborating together. All the things that he had strived his time at Beacon to be like, at least at one point it was what he strived for. Now he wasn't sure.
Nick decided to walk back to the infirmary. 'Perhaps the nurse is done with the evaluation, or has a class list' was the thought that caused him to be outside the door he was at currently. He had stopped outside the door due to hearing two voice from inside discuss something, both he recognized.
"I don't care if you think that it would be a bad idea to interrogate him about the White Fang uniform I saw he had. I'm doing it anyway and you can't stop me Opal!" Nick recognized that to be the voice of Glynda. 'Opal, I guess that's the nurse's name' Nick mused to himself.
"It won't do any good. His mental evaluation shows he's unstable! He's probably a pathological liar!"
"I don't care, as long as he might have an idea of what happened to my Nick!"
"What would happen if he did, and Nick did comeback. What then."
"I'd protect him, make sure nothing ever happened again."
"He wouldn't need protecting, he'd be 16 and would have survived what happened to him. What if he was a psycho who's murdered his way out of prison?!" Nick was duly impressed that by random chance she described his escape quite accurately.
"The Nick I know would never do something as heinous as that! I woul-" That was all Nick needed to hear. It was what had slowly started killing him from the inside out. His first kill, than his second, soon it was ten and then it just stopped mattering how many he killed. How many lives he destroyed, or the countless families he had fractured. Nick didn't give a Monty Ohm ass what happened anymore. His path was more clouded than it had ever been.
Before Nick knew it he was at the bullhead landing. Having silently fled from the infirmary's conversation his feet seemed to take them to where he needed to be. At first he thought that the obvious reason he was there was because he was supposed to leave. But after scoping the surroundings he found a familiar bunny sitting on a bench under a tree, just enjoying nature. He didn't wish to disturb her, and began walking away from the location.
"You're the new kid, Nick right?" Came the silky voice of Velvet.
"Ya, I was just leaving. I don't want to disturb you."
"At lunch you seemed lost. Is everything okay?" Velvet looked at him with care in her eyes. "Please sit down." She gestured to a spot on the bench beside her.
Nick snorted, "I'm the one who was lost, what about you being bullied. Where was the rest of your team anyway?"
"They're out on a mission, I couldn't go because I got sick prior to leaving."
"That sucks. When do the bullheads come to take students down to Vale?"
Velvet gave a sad kind of smile "they come every other hour until ten pm."
Nick really didn't want to get involved with anyone and then have to leave. But it was Velvet and he should have at least said hi to her when they meet again, "Whats with the sad face?"
"It's nothing. It's just the day that my best friend was taken by the White Fang."
"Ha! Bunny and vagrant, who knew you two were an item." Shouted a gruff voice behind them. Nick recognized it to be Cardin. Nick turned his head to get a view of the bully, who was being tailed by his three teammates. Luckily for Velvet, Nick didn't see her blush when Cardin called them an item.
"I'm not in a good mood Cardin. If you know what's good for you give me… and her some space."
"You see, I want to be a hunter and protect my race from grimm and flea ridden faunus scum!" Cardin's response received a good chuckle from his teammates.
"Velvet, let's go somewhere else." Nick told Velvet in a warm soft voice. She gave a small nod and holding her hand, which was trembling they began to walk away from the jeering boys.
After making a few strides Nick felt a hard hand against his shoulder. "I didn't say that you could leave did I lover boy?"
"I'll be a second, go on ahead please." Nick's voice was steady and projected an order, not a request to Velvet. Velvet hurried off into a nearby building.
"Ohh, so lover boy you think you can be at hunter huh? Your pet's going to break up once she sees what we'll do to you!" Nick gave an internal sigh, 'Cardin had received a warning, not listened and now it was time to fight.'
Nick slowly took off his school blazer and tie while Cardin and his goons continued their mocking. Cardin made his first huge error when he turned to look back at his friend Russell to make another sly comment. That's when Nick made his first move. He hooked his right arm around Cardin's neck and began to squeeze. Cardin began to struggle. But the more Cardin struggled the tighter the iron grip tightened.
Russell was the first to recover from the shock of seeing a friend slowly grow pale with lack of oxygen. "Let him go!" He shouted, his only response was a killer's glare. Russell swung his arm out in an effort to free his friend and punch Nick in the face. Nick unlocked his arm from the choke hold and proceeded to dodge the blow. Stepping into the punch Nick lifted his left leg and crashed it down onto Russell's outstretched knee.
*CRACK*
"Arghhh!" Russell let out a cry of pain. His knee was bent at a sickly angle in the wrong direction. Russell fell to the ground and began squirming away. Cardin was still on the ground trying to take in any available oxygen with the other two backing up. Nick calmly and purposely strolled over to the fallen Cardin. Squatting down to Cardin could more easily see his face, Nick's eyes were dead.
"I get it. I won't be mean to anyone again." Rasped Cardin in broken speech, he had yet to fully recover from his choking.
Nick's empty eyes stared back at him. Nick picked up Cardin's right wrist and slowly, painfully bent it back.
*CRACK*
Cardin was no longer speaking coherently. He seemed to be whimpering on the ground, pleading for forgiveness.
-Glynda POV-
She was fuming at Opal. Both of them was giving the other the cold shoulder after their heated argument. Glynda couldn't believe that Opal was questioning her ability to love her son. She had an aching wound in her heart from when he disappeared that had never been filled from anything. She tried many different things, from alcohol to dates, nothing worked.
"Excuse me, but can you direct me to a new student by the name of Nick. I was told I would find him here." Glynda turned her head to see who had spoken. Standing at the door was a man wearing reflector aviator shades, white shirt and a dapper looking suit without a tie. His clothes didn't quite match his face however, he had sunken cheeks and his lower jaw was multiple shades lighter than the rest of his face, as if he had recently shaved after not shaving for years.
"Who are you?" Opal questioned the odd man in here domain.
"Call me Edmonde. I'm a friend of Nick's. He said he'd be arou-"
"COME QUICK. Cardin's beating up Nick!" Velvet had rushed past Edmonde when she burst into the room. Her face was flush from sprinting to the room from where she had just been.
"WHAT!?" Simultaneously cried Glynda and Opal at the same time in concern. Glynda hadn't felt that attached to Nick, but to hear that another student was fighting him purely for pleasure was sickening.
"Ohh Monty. This is bad!" Edmond's grabbed Velvet's arm forcibly, "bring me there NOW!"
Velvet wasn't going to be asked twice and bolted through the halls and down stairs leading to the gardens by the bullhead dock. Edmonde, Glynda and Opal followed as close as they were capable of following to a rabbit faunus in flight.
Glynda was very concerned with what she saw. There was a sole figure laying on the ground, motionless. She rushed over to inspect who it was. It was Nick, however unlike Velvet had claimed there were no visible marks to be seen.
"Where's Cardin and his goons?" Velvet asked, her brow furled in confusion and ears straight on alert.
"Ohh, them. They just talked to me a little and then went off. I thought it was such a nice day I should relax here." Matter of factly stated Nick. Velvet's face grew flushed with embarrassment and her ears dropped to almost covering her coffee brown eyes. She thought that she was doing the right thing by seeking help, but was just wasting other people's time. She saw the disappointed stares that Opal and Glynda gave her, she was nearly on the verge of tears.
-Nick POV-
'That was close. I just finished hiding the bodies when they burst onto the scene. I've got to remember how fast Velvet is.' Internally thought Nick. Externally he was discussing with the group how he was enjoying the school. All in all a pretty boring conversation. At some point during it Velvet snuck off to be alone, she didn't talk much during the discussion on the trouble that team CRDL had done since they got to the school.
"Nick, please come with me, I want to discuss the report that you took earlier." Opal finally brought up a subject of interest.
"That's a good idea." Nick got up, while Opal lead the way back to the infirmary. Passing Edmonde he placed a note into his friend's pocket. The note merely told Edmonde where Nick had placed the injured bodies of the four boys and what he wished done with them, being that they disappear for some indefinite time.
The walk to the infirmary was done in silence. Nick was quite surprised that he was able to restrain himself from killing the boys, which was what had been ingrained in his habits for the past seven years. When they got to the infirmary Opal motioned for him to take a seat while she retrieved some papers.
"So, am I normal?" Nick questioned, with a tinge of hope in his voice.
"I thought that you would have known. You aren't if what the tests you did are valid at all, you have borderline sociopathic tendencies, however your test questions have quite a lot of deviation in them. It's as if you don't want to admit to feeling for others, but actually do. So tell me, what happened?"
"I really don't want to talk about it. They're not fond memories to relive"
"I'm sure they aren't, but if you ever need to talk to anyone, you've always got me. Anything at all, you know where to find me." Opal said gingerly. Nick could tell that it was sincere, but he didn't feel like opening up.
Ozpin strolled in with his cane clacking on the tile floor. He always knew when to make a timely entrance. "Tell me Nick. How has your day been going so far?" Ozpin questioned by the door.
"Very well I would say. I met some new friends and breakfast was fabulous." Nick smiled remembering how the meal had filled him more than any meal in the past seven years had.
"Very good. I saw that your fighting style is quite driven." Ozpin gave Nick a knowing smile.
"What do you mean by that." Nick felt sweat dripping down his shirt.
"Oh, just that when I saw team CRDL and you having a friendly sparring match you caught them by seeming surprise." Ozpin's smile seemed to be mocking Nick.
Velvet stuck her head out from behind Ozpin and shouted, "You lied. You're just like Cardin, you tell people what they want to hear, then stab them in the back!" Nick saw that her eyes were welling up with tears about his betrayal of her.
-Velvet POV-
Velvet thought that he was different than the other boys that picked on her. She thought that he somehow understood what it was like to be discriminated against and picked on. But just like all the others he had taken her trust and thrown it back in her face. He was worse than Cardin, she expected that type of behavior from him, but not from her new friend Nick, her only friend outside of her team. She couldn't believe herself. She waited outside the infirmary for the last couple of minutes just to make sure that he was okay and he betrayed her just like others had.
Velvet ran to the library. She always loved the library few people went there, and Cardin's group was not one of those few. It was quite in the library, the perfect place to calm her. She had gotten over her shyness somewhat from childhood, but she really hated it when people lost her trust, just like they did when she cried wolf to get them to save the already safe Nick earlier that day.
Velvet was crouching behind one of the bookcases staring at her favorite picture of Nick Goodwitch. She softly stroked the worn picture.
"I was so close to making a friend today. I know you used to say that to make a friend it takes effort and sometimes it hurt. I know that being friends with me meant that the other boys would segregate you more than me as a faunus lover. Do you think I should give it another shot?" Velvet paused, waiting almost to see if the face would respond, "What am I saying. Of course you can't answer. You're gone, probably for good. I have to be strong now."
She was still crouching in one of the forgotten isles of the massive library when she heard steps growing closer. A shadow appeared over her, she looked up to see Nick standing with a forlorn look in his eyes. Velvet scooted to face the opposite direction of him.
"I'm sorr-" Nick began to say before Velvet cut him off.
"Don't you dare say your were sorry for lying about Cardin. You've broken my trust, not that I had any to begin with."
"I know I probably can't regain that trust. I haven't had much experience around normal people for many years. I'm kind of broken you see. I don't trust people easily and find it far easier to throw a punch than to talk."
Velvet let out a sigh. For the life of her she couldn't force herself to hate Nick, "I kind of get that. For years it was just me and my best friend. Then he disappeared and it took me a long time to build up enough courage to talk to people again."
"What changed, if I'm not being intrusive that is."
"No, no, that's okay. I actually was brought out of my lonely world by my teammates. They're the best team here at Beacon." She continued to ramble on about her team and her adventures in it. Nick's eyes never left her. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside when he did so. It was if he was a warm fire and she was a cat curled up beside him. "I'm sure I must be sounding like Professor Port to you right now."
"No, it's fine. I'd actually like to meet this team of yours if I could." Nick said smiling warmly.
Her eyes brightened, "They're coming back in a few days. Coco, the leader always takes everyone shopping after a mission. I'll see if you can tag along!"
"Shopping? I'm not that big a fan." Nick said hesitantly.
"Ohh it's not too bad. It's not all shopping. We do other things as well. You'll see."
"All right, I'm glad we're friends right?" Nick reached out his hand to shake hers.
She shook his hand firmly back, "Friends!" She blushed some. It had been ages since she had last made a friend. And never this fast.
I will try my best to make next chapter funny. And you might see Nick's semblance. If anyone has any idea they wish to give about that I'm always interested. I have a good idea now, but I might change it if it's good.
Hope you've enjoyed!